Another trend with legs: the skyrocketing prices of Harlem brownstones. The New York Sun reports that they've recently blown past the $400/square foot barrier with the sale of a four-story townhouse at 204 West 123rd Street for $1.5 million?or $434/square foot. "Users have exhausted the markets below 110th Street and realize the opportunities to own are further north," says listing broker Shimon Shkury of Massey Knakal. The kicker: "The buyers plan to rent the apartments to Columbia students." (More details after the jump for those lacking an NYSun subscription.)
· Done Deals [New York Sun]
From the Sun's story:
SHATTERED RECORD The sale of this 16-foot-wide building on 123rd Street breaks new ground for pricing town houses above 118th Street by reaching beyond the $300 a foot price common for the neighborhood. This 3,456-squarefoot building sold for $434.03 a foot...The town house, on a tree-lined street near Columbia University, has a duplex unit on the ground floor and three floor-through rental apartments on the upper floors. The sellers, a couple who are buying a larger property in Westchester, renovated the building in line with its original details. It has seven fireplaces, a garden, a completed basement replete with cameras for security, new bathrooms, and a kitchen.
"If you look down the street, you can see six or seven of these town houses that are being renovated by young, professional couples," Mr. O'Malley said. The buyers, who were represented by Chris Halliburton of Warburg Realty Partnership, plan to rent the apartments to Columbia students.